


In Shining Armor

by Femmevee



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Bumblebee doesn’t fear god, Enemies to Lovers, Homoerotic sword fights, I guess???, Keeping it real this was inspired by a tumblr post I didn’t think id get this far is all, M/M, Royalty AU, it has the prince/knight dynamic so it counts, listen this fic is gonna be real tender okay, no beta we die like men, will update tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-07-23 13:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20008963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Femmevee/pseuds/Femmevee
Summary: A half-pint, chatterbox prince meets a three faced, screwball knight in disguiseYeah, there’s nothing that could go wrong with this.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting a best friend step one: be annoying

With someone with as great and epic a title as Allspark Prince, Bumblebee always assumed when the time came he’d be doing more...prince-like things, like from those turbofairy tales he’d read in his first few stellar cycles of existence. But no. No, his ‘One True Purpose’ that Optimus guy waxed poetic about for hours without end the second bumblebee was forged from the allspark, his entire reason for existence at all was:

Doing.

Nothing.

Well, actually no. He has done things. A lot of things, really. From the moment bumblebee was gifted life by the allspark he had done nothing but train to be the newest Allspark Prince, a sacred protector of the Allspark. Which meant battle simulations, diplomacy studies, Optimus Prime's inescapable history lectures-

By the time Ultra Magnus and the other Allspark Princes saw him fit to do his duty they split the Allspark into four equal pieces, one of which was bestowed upon bee before he was rather unceremoniously shuttled off to some distant backwater stellar system.

So far, the only princely thing he’d done was when they landed on this planet- _earth_ , right? When he had to calm down all those little squishy organic things..humans they called themselves. Well, apparently they were very territorial beings, and didn’t take too kindly to these ‘giant robot overlords invading their precious planet’ (honestly he didn’t even know there were creatures _here_ ). 

Solar cycles of being cramped in their small little offices later, Bumblebee and his crew were allowed to clear off the tops of some abandoned mine and set up base there.

Now, bee found himself reminiscing their torches and pitchforks.

Because now, when faced with the actual duty of protecting the allspark shard, the small, yellow mech found it _mind numbingly, undeniably, indescribably boring_.

It’s just looking at a shiny blue rock all day! Even worse, in the princes’ opinion, there was no one to talk to.

Well, no. That was a lie too, but you can only annoy your resident medic for so long until he starts throwing wrenches at you yelling to ‘get back to work or the next ones going up your aft’. And trying to talk to the small handful of warframe guards could only be compared to reading out your life memoir to a rock. He wasn’t even gonna entertain the idea of trying to strike up a conversation with his palace of all things, though ratchet was content humming to Omega Supreme like he was his sparkling. Gross.

So that’s where the yellow bot found himself, as the solar cycles melted into each other, laying down on a bench as he stared at the black, bronze, and scarlet ceiling of Omega Supreme in his palace alt mode, the prince had resorted to one of the simpler ways to pass the time...Making a variety of crude noises. Flicking fingers against his glass paneling, clicking his glossa to made up rhythms, and humming broken melodies to songs he couldn’t be bothered to remember the name of; the instruments to his little symphony called, ‘I swear to Primus if I don’t get some entertainment soon I’m gonna rip my horns off’ in E minor.

Bumblebee didn’t get his wish until well into the third act of his one bot performance, when he had started blowing raspberries of wavering pitch and tone up into the high vaulted ceiling. But the intruding sound wasn’t one to easily miss.

A mechanical _whirr,_ followed by a muffled cackling, followed by another _whirr_.

The prince sat right up with wide blue optics.

That was certainly new.

Bumblebee hopped up from the bench, peering around curiously, trying to locate the source of the mysterious noise. All his optics swept up were the dark bronze walls, the polished gold floors, the guard, the cyberpine bench, the-

Oh of course, the guard! Bumblebee clenched his fists in excitement and spun around to confront the knight, almost stumbling back when he immediately noticed just how giant the mech in question was. Like ‘stack three Bees on top of each other and they still probably wouldn’t reach full height’ kind of giant.

That wasn’t all the yellow mech noticed about him, either. The guard was sporting muted beige colors, accentuated with violet hues. Over his chest was a tan chestplate, a glossy red Autobot insignia plastered on dead center, and over his helm rested a knights helmet, matching in beige coloring with red glass paneling as the visor.

He only ogled for a few more kliks before piping up, “Hey, was that you just now?”

The other mech stiffened, his vents catching slightly like a sparkling with its servo caught in the candied energon jar, “Yes, it was your majesty. I apologize if I acted out of turn.”

Bumblebee shuttered his optics a few times. Huh, this guy had a weird accent.

He liked it.

“What was that spinny noise, right before you stopped?” The prince dared to walk closer to the knight, whose helm tilted down to track his every move.

“Simply my fans, your highness.” 

Even without teeth Bee could tell he was lying straight through them. “Your fans, huh? You might wanna go to Ratchet and get that checked out. I don’t think fans are supposed to sound like tha-“

He almost didn’t hear the low hum of shifting mechanics again over the uproarious rumbling of what were definitely not standard grade engines.

“NO! I’M PERFECTLY FINE AND FUNCTIONAL, BUG!” The knight stomped down to yell at Bumbleee’s level with the force of a small earthquake, knocking the poor prince off his pedes and on his aft.

“Woah! Hey! Your voice changed! There’s that spinny noise again, too!” Bumblebee scrambled up from his place on the floor, sticking a bright yellow finger in the knight’s face, who backed off looking more than shocked, if his posture was anything to go by. But Bee didn’t look angry, or nervous, or even the least bit frightened. In fact his faceplates were alive with an excitement that hadn’t graced the yellow mech for stellar cycles.

Meanwhile, the mysterious mech had backed off, returning to his previous stiff stance. Another soft whirring accompanied shortly by the clearing of his intake, before he mumbled out “I’m so very sorry your majesty. You are right, those weren’t my fans. I have a bit of a- uh...condition?” 

“Like what, the cyberflu?”

_Whirr_

“ **IT IS FAR WORSE THAN SOME FRAGGING CYBERFLU YOU PUNY** -“ The knight seemed to physically struggle with himself for a moment, grunting before the now familiar series of clicks and hums brought him back to his calmer voice. “I’m afraid it is far worse than the common cyberflu, and incurable, as far as I know. The spinning you’ve been hearing is from my face-“

”YOUR FACE?!”

” _Yes my face you_ -“ The bigger mech stopped himself again with a sharp in-vent, balling his servos into fists, “Yes, your majesty. It’s a rather unwanted side effect of an equally despised upgrade.”

“An upgrade? Like what?” The weasely little prince had somehow shimmied up the guards leg and onto his shoulder where he perched himself now. “New tire treads? An engine replacement?” He tapped on the transparent red glass of the other mech’s visor “Something to do with this?” The knight gently swatted Bumblebee’s servo away, but since the prince only knew subtlety in the form of being hit by a bus, he stayed where he was, but had the sense to keep his servos to himself.

“Ya got a name? I need someone to pester next time I’m feelin bored.”

“If it would please your majesty to know, my designation is Blitzwing”

“Got it, blitzbrain.”

“No, you misunderstand, it’s-“

“I know what it is, I’m just teasin ya, big bot!”

_Whirrrrrr_

It was a new voice that yowled at him this time, “Oohoohoohoo! Are we giving each other nicknames? What about one for you, princey~?” From where he sat, Bumblebee could make out dark edges around what would otherwise be glaring pink optics staring back at him through the crimson visor. It was only for a passing moment, however. Because without word or warning, he was picked up by a pair of huge servos and swung around the room by his arms, a gleeful round of cackling reverberating in his audio sensors. As dizzying as it was, Bee couldn’t help but let out a few lighthearted giggles of his own “How does Bumblebot sound, hmmmm?”

“HAHAHA- f-fine, blitzbrain! Just pumme down, you’re gonna tear my servos off!”

This seemed to bring a Blitzwing back down to earth, one shift of the faceplates later and he was gently setting Bumblebee down. An awkward silence filled the room, Bee was just about to ask more about the spinning faceplates when-

‘ ***YOUR MAJESTY,** **WHERE THE SLAG ARE YOU?! THE OTHER PRINCES HAVE BEEN WAITIN’ FOR HALF A BREEM FOR YOU TO GET ON A HOLO-CONFERENCE WITH ‘EM!*** ’

The prince jumped when he heard the grouchy medic comm into his audio sensors, “Ah, hey ratch! Sorry, didn’t get the memo, I’ll be there in half a klik!”

Bee hastily turned off the comm to avoid further scolding and offlined his optics with a loud ex-vent. He turned his head and saw blitzwing now standing ramrod straight, but straining his visual sensors he noticed two red optics, one narrow and one round, staring down back at him. “Looks like I gotta jet, blitzbrain. But hey, holler at me if ya see me again, okay? That’s a royal order.” Bee waved a servo goodbye before dashing off, none too eager to be chastised again.

_Whirrr_

“I’ll screech like a turbocat with its tail chopped off!”

_Whiiir_

“As you wish, Prince Bumblebot.”

Though the mech in question was out of the room and darting down the hall when he heard it, Bee couldn’t help the small but genuine smile that crossed his faceplates when he heard the nickname, and the odd warmth in his spark threatened to stay the rest of the solar cycle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ah...tunnels, ze pinnacle of romance

“Cmoonnn, pleeaaassee? Just an eensy peek open? I won’t tell Ratchet! I hear fresh air is good for the processor!” Bumblebee rattled off excuse after excuse for Omega Supreme to crack open the giant palace doors just a little bit, anything for him to squirrel out his escape in. It had been several solar cycles since his encounter with Blitzwing and the processor numbing boredom had begun seeping into his circuits again. The prince ached to run around and do something. He needed to go out. He needed to _move_. 

“Letting the Allspark prince out unless it is a total emergency isn’t in my programming, your majesty. It is also not to my knowledge that our kind need earth oxygen to brea-“

“Oh, forget it! Go annoy Ratchet or something.” Bumblebee grumbled as he gave up pounding his fists against the doors, crashing his helm against it once with a _thud_ and starting to slide his frame painfully slow down to the floor. Once his chassis was crumpled against the shiny gold, he flipped over to his back and craned his neck to look at the towering pair of double doors. Light bronze framed the onyx paneling, with crafted ruby sheet metal glinting in the light as the prince lazily flicked his optics over the mural above him.

The scene depicted was from a war, that much he knew, but rather than the usual gore-fest that such a topic invited, this was rather domestic in comparison. Two mecha embracing under a mandala of Cybertron’s many moons, looking blissful and serene. Bumblebee didn’t remember their names, or what the war was about for that matter, but he remembered the message Optimus taught him the day the prime had given his daily dose of lectures. “ _War and love share many a commonality, which justifies pain and which brings an end to it is up to the one experiencing it_.”

It was a rather touching sentiment now that Bumblebee thought about it, but in the same solar cycle prowl had taken him aside and taught him how to deliver the killing blow by striking a certain space between the spinal struts with enough force to sever a major energon line, so he supposed everything the other three princes said was to be taken with a flake of rust.

The prince slouched even further down, torso now flat on the floor and neck cables pressed uncomfortably against the door. He knew it was bad posture, but only Primus could judge him and their sins outnumbered his own.

“That doesn’t look like the most comfortable place for a recharge, Prince Bumblebot.”

The aforementioned mech’s optics refocused with a _snap_ , and in no time at all he was up on his pedes. The knight stood at the end of the foyer, and although his face was still obscured, Bee secretly hoped that it was a smile he was hearing on the edge of his guards’ vocals. “Blitzbrain! I wasn’t napping. I was just- uh- checking the durability of these doors! Every good prince should have a sturdy palace, right?” Bumblebee stammered as he gave a few hasty knocks to the entryway, clangs echoing throughout the hall. “Yep! Just as I suspected, all up to standard.”

“Bumblebot.”

“Yeah, Blitzbrain?”

“I was here the entire time.”

 _SLAG_.

The yellow mech shuttered his optics, energon rushing to his faceplates and dousing them blue. Bee turned on his pedes, not wanting his new friend to see how embarrassed he was. “First of all,” He griped, “You have no right to be that sneaky for someone your size class-“

“I never claimed to be. Maybe you’re just deaf, Bumblebot.”

Bumblebee feigned an offended in-vent, putting a servo to his torso as he whirled back around. “You SLAGEATER! I’ll have you know I got the audio processors of a turbofox.” He declared, chin held preposterously high.

“Oh, really?”

The prince audibly gasped when Blitzwing’s vocalizer chided right in his audio processors, blue optics flying open as he reared back and promptly bashed his helm on the doors. Comets flew around his visual field for a klik as he tried to shake his helm free of the brief pain. When his optics onlined again his hazy focus snapped into place at the sight of the guard doubled over in laughter. “Okay, that’s it! I’m officially making it a royal decree that you can’t sneak up on me!” Bumblebee fumed, his fans working overtime as the heat of embarrassment built up under his armor. Still, the yellow mech couldn’t help the tiny grin that edged on the tip of his dermas; Blitzwing just had that effect.

Eventually, the howling did die down and bumblebee heard the knights shifting faceplate mechanisms click in place again. “My apologies, your majesty. It is hard for my other side not to see an opportunity for a joke and not take it.” Bumblebee hummed in thought, tapping his narrow chin for a moment. In retrospect, he probably did look hilarious banging his helm and all that, but he’d sooner go to the pits than admit that. Still...

“Okay, I _guess_ I won’t take you to the stockades for treason,” the prince proclaimed with an overly haughty tone, waving a servo around like he was batting away a turbofly. Out the corner of his visual field, he noticed Blitzwing tense up at the mention of prison. Huh. Weird.

“How very gracious of you, your majesty.” The knight replied with cold sarcasm after a nanoklik. “What are you doing trying to leave anyways? It’s against protocol to go out of range of the Allspark fragment for long.”

“It’s also against protocol for a guard to chat up the prince.”

“Touché, but that still doesn’t answer my question.”

Bumblebee groaned and ran a servo over his faceplates, annoyed at nothing in particular, “I’m bored, Blitzbrain! I need to go out and _do_ something or else my processor’s gonna explode!” The yellow mech cried out, sending echoes of his woe bouncing throughout the hallway. Blitzwing tilted his helm to the side, seemingly perplexed behind his mask.

“The library here is quite vast, could you not browse the data pads in there?” 

“I could, ‘cept I’ve already read every single word in there!” 

“All of them?”

“Backwards, submerged and in my recharge.” When he snapped back this time, Blitzwing remained eerily still for a few kliks, and Bee worried he might have sounded just a tad too bratty. But before he could apologize-

“If you’re really that bored, I may have a possible solution. If you’re up some exploring, that is.”

Blue optics widened, almost uncommonly large for a helm the size of Bumblebee’s. A nanoklik of blinking away his shock later, and a curious smirk crept along his faceplates.

“Oh yeah? What exactly did you have in mind, Blitzbrain?”

*************

This was not what Bumblebee had in mind.

The small yellow mech could only gawk as Blitzwing gently plucked out the screws on a bronze wall panel, nearly pulling the thing clean off with his large, clumsy servos. Once Bee agreed to go along with the knight’s shenanigans, the two had snuck off to the basement level of the palace, it’s only function being a warehouse that stored a few dusty stasis pods. The fluorescents above them flickered and gave out every few nanokliks, making the yellow prince fidget with unease. His mind briefly flashed to a true crime holo-vid he binged during the ride to earth.

“You know, if you’re gonna offline me, or something like that, this is quite the place to do it,” Bumblebee chuckled nervously, drumming his servos together. Blitzwing halted on the final screw, his covered helm turned to look at Bee, posture stiffening ever so slightly. The prince strained his optics to try and see through the red glass that concealed the knight’s face, what he got instead was the telltale spin of faceplates, humming and whirring for a solid klik until he seemingly settled on one.

“If I wanted to offline you, Bumblebot, I would’ve done it much sooner!” A giddy laugh jeered back at him, Blitzwing keeping his helm trained on Bee as he ripped the panel off in one comically swift motion.

“Woah.” 

Behind the wall, a long, dark cavern greeted the yellow mech, broken lanterns and decaying organic beams littering the walls. Bumblebee gave himself whiplash turning his helm to the tunnel, than to blitzwing, than back to the tunnel. After a good, long few kliks of that, he cleared his vocalizer and asked, “WHERE THE SLAG DID YOU FIND THIS, BLITZBRAIN?!” In the calmest voice possible.

“You’re not the only one with a bored processor and a lot of free time.” At some point during Bee’s pathetic helm spinning the knight had reverted back to what the prince decided to start referring to as ‘smart aft voice’, if only to keep a grasp of identity on his only friend. Blitzwing stooped down to cross under the wall and into the tunnel, much better accommodated for his size. “I happened upon the loose panel one day when I was down here, I put it back where it was and haven’t touched it since, but seeing as you are in dire need of a distraction this passageway may have use.”

“For what?”

“Exploring, like I said.”

Bumblebee hesitantly placed a pede across the threshold, his servo gripping the wall. “You know,” he stammered out, “curiosity killed the turbocat.”

_Whirrr_

“But satisfaction brought it baack~!”

Bee decided to call that one ‘crankcase voice’. Another spin later and the knight turned around to where the prince was lingering.

“If you truly do not wish to go in, I won’t make you. You said you were bored and this was the first thing that came to processor-“

“You callin’ me a coward?!”

“No, I was just-“

“Nuh-uh it’s too late the spite has settled in the bar is raised I’m _going in_.” The small yellow mech marched in, determination and pseudo bravery written on his faceplates-

Shortly after he tripped and fell over a rock.

“ **_SLAG_ **-!” The prince cursed as his chassis crashed to the ground. Nothing hurt, but he was gonna have to come up with one pit of an excuse for Ratchet later. To make matters worse crankcase was back and cackling maniacally, making the yellow mech burn up with embarrassment. When the laughing stopped Bee shamefully scrambled back up, dirt and gravel sticking to the front of his frame.

_Whirrr_

Blitzwing kneeled down and started dusting his chassis, “You know,” the guard started, already sounding like a snider, pettier clone of Ratchet, “I am aware it is my job as a Knight of the Allspark to protect the prince, but I will do a very poor job of it if his majesty purposely throws himself helmlong into the fray.” Bumblebee stuttered pathetically as Blitzwing got up and turned back around.

“I- you- whatever, let’s keep going.”

The cavern path was straight, if not jagged. But as the low grade lights from the basement tapered out of view, the tunnels became harder and harder to navigate, pretty soon the two mechs couldn’t take one step without stumbling into something, which of course led to arguments.

Bumblebee decided to call this voice ‘glitch’.

“FOR THE LAST TIME, YOU ARE _NOT_ SETTING OFF A FLAMETHROWER IN A DARK TUNNEL SURROUNDED BY UNKNOWN ORGANIC SUBSTANCES! DO YOU HAVE A PROCESSOR IN THERE?!”

“ **ONE THAT'S MUCH BIGGER THAN YOURS, _BUG_ **!”

The irate knight’s voice boomed through the tunnels, sending stray dust down where they stood. Bumblebee glanced up at the bigger mech, red glaring at him through the helmet. The yellow mech took a short invent, shuttering his optics for a second. “Wait-“

“... **WHAT**?”

“I have an idea. It’s too risky for me to transform in here, _however_ -“ Bee felt the natural shift of his servos sliding back and his stingers popping out. His weapons jumped alive with sparks and stray bolts, lighting up their section of the mine, however dimly. 

_Whirrrrr_

“Stingers.” Blitzwing nodded cooly.

“Yep. Battlegrade too.” 

The knight hummed in thought, and the two mechs continued on, talking about their relatively boring lives as they traversed the forgotten passageways. As it turned out, the two were naturally adept at keeping their wacky conversations going as they bounced from one topic to the next.

“And it’s not like I couldn’t have binged the new season but you can only watch _My Little Cybermare_ so many times until you wanna _AAAAA-_ “ Bumblebee felt his tanks lurch as he careened forward, about to lovingly embrace another set of scratches and dents until a servo wrapped around his waist and pulled him back towards Blitzwing’s side.

“Are you alright, Prince Bumblebot?”

“Uh, y-yeah, thanks, Blitzbrain.”

“Of course. Please try to get some self preservation instincts.”

“And put you out of a job? You know I wouldn’t be so cruel.”

Bee had never heard Blitzwing laugh when it wasn’t a deranged series of cackles. So when the taller mech let out a short, but enchanting bark of amusement, to say the prince was caught off guard was an understatement. His spark hitched in its chamber, and his processor stalled for a moment. This cave air must be getting to him. Didn’t omega say something about that? Whatever. 

The yellow mech held out his stingers in front of him and peered down. What met him below was a rickety set of metal stairs that groaned when Bumblebee dared set a pede down. Quickly yet cautiously he descended the remaining steps, ex-venting a sigh of relief when he touched the ground once more. Upping the charge on his stingers the prince discovered the area they were in to be much more spacious than the narrow tunnels they had so far faced. 

“Hey, this is pretty neat! I can hear my echo! Hellooooooo! Anybot home?”

Bee snickered to himself as the fading echoes reached his audio sensors. “Hey, Blitzbrain!” He called out over his shoulder plate, “Those stairs look a little unstable, ya sure there isn’t-“

A loud, resounding crash answered his call, and Bee turned around just in time for his optics to welcome a spectacle; Blitzwing with one leg bent on the ground and the other sticking in the middle of what was once an old set of rusty stairs. Bumblebee knew he shouldn't have laughed, but the giggles were out of his intake before he could stop them. Just picturing the shocked expression behind the red mask sent him into another spiral of laughter and pretty soon the yellow mech was clutching his sides. He barely noticed it over the sound of his own mirth, but when he heard Blitzwing start to laugh the prince stopped himself. Primus, a laugh should not sound that good. Slagging cave air.

Bumblebee started looking around as Blitzwing pulled himself out of the wreckage. “This must be an old mining camp, abandoned like the rest of the tunnels.” The knight surmised after a brief glance around.

“Hey!” Bee gasped out in realization.

“What?”

“This is the perfect place for a hideout!”

“I...suppose, so?” Blitzwing swept his gaze over their small view of the cave again, “Why, are you hiding out from anything?”

“Well I mean, it’d be far easier than having to chase each other around a big ol’ castle, if we had a place to meet up when we’re off duty.”

The knight nodded in acknowledgement, remaining silent while stepping closer to the prince. Bee started getting nervous again, fiddling with his digits, and for once he didn’t know why. “Y-you know what, I take it back.” He stuttered out, “This was a stupid idea.”

“Bee-“

“Who even has a hideout in a cave anyway?”

“Bee!”

“Why would we even need a hideout I mean it’s not like we’re _super_ close friends-“

“BEE!”

Bumblebee shuttered his optics, the nervousness he built up dissapaiting as he was snapped out of his trance, “Yeah, Blitzbrain?” He glanced up as the aforementioned mech let out a small ex-vent and glanced around again.

“Well, first we’d need to make some adjustments. If you can bring some proper lighting then I’ll find some way to replace those stairs.”

A heaviness bumblebee did not know was there lifted from his spark. The tension left his shoulder plates and his nervous smile broadened into a large grin. “Yeah, I’ll get workin’ on that, Blitzbrain.”

“...Hey Bug?”

“Yeah?”

“How do we get out of here?”

 _FRAG_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry bee u gotta be at least a level seven friend to unlock blitzwing’s tragic backstory

The cave the two mechs had chosen proved to be much more dilapidated than it seemed upon first glance. Stalactites scattered the ceiling, where small, organic creatures Bumblebee settled on calling “flappy glitches” hissed about. What was left of the mining camp was made of old, rotten organic material that was either knocked over by Blitzwing’s clumsy pedes or destroyed intentionally to make room. 

The past few solar cycles proved eventful for both of them, once they had found their way out their time was spent gathering their assigned supplies and dodging questions. When Bumblebee’s helm hit his recharge slab the first lunar cycle he’d been elated to see a ping on his alert system, a private commlink invitation from his favorite beige mech. The following cycles were spent in silent conversation, and often the yellow mech was chastised for spacing out on duty, lost in endless banter with his best friend. Was that what he was calling Blitzbrain? Best friend? Damn, it felt good to have one of those.

It wasn’t just endless jokes and playful arguments that were shared, either. The two mechs were planning their next visit to the cave, so lovingly dubbed ‘the hive’ by a cackling Blitzwing. Cycles upon cycles passed by, and Bumblebee was already starting to feel the itch of boredom again when he received a message from his favorite mech.

‘ _ Basement. Half a breem.’ _

‘ _ DON’T BE LATE. _ ’

‘ _ Try not to hit your helm coming down all those stairs!!! -Blitzbrain. _ ’

And that’s where the pair found themselves currently, back in the cave where Blitzwing was holding Bumblebee up by the waist so the yellow mech could attach another light fixture to the ceiling.

“I swear, if you dent me, scratch up my NEW PAINT JOB, I’ll-“

“You’ll personally have my helm as a trophy, I am aware.”

“It isn’t easy to get paint all the way from Cybertron, you know.”

“I know.”

“You are  _ so _ lucky there was a coat my color on board.” Bumblebee huffed and twisted in the last screw. “Alright, I think that’s it. You can let me down now, Blitz.”  Poor choice of words, it seemed. Nanokliks later the beige mech’s grip was nonexistent and Bee was rocketing toward the ground, an audial splitting screech ripping out of his vocalizer.  A servo wrapped around his pede, stopping him just as his horns scraped the rocks. 

“Oh, you GLITCH!”

Above him, Blitzwing was about to offline laughing, his high pitched cackling echoing throughout the cave. In one move, the mech pulled bumblebee up and into his arms, his laughter sending vibrations through the yellow mech’s chassis.  “It really isn’t that funny, Blitzbrain.”

“You’re right, honeypot, it’s  _ hilarious _ !”

Bumblebee’s blue optics rolled hard enough to hit the back of his helm. He rapped his servo against the bigger mechs armored torso, “Okay, put me down for real this time, no death drops.”  He waited for the sound of spinning before he knew it was safe to be set down. Once bee was set down, the prince took a step back, servos planted on his hip plates.

“Alright, Blitzy, flip the switch.”

The aforementioned mech fumbled around in the dark for the generator, “Why couldn’t we have turned a few work lights on?”

“It’s for the dramatic effect, Blitzbrain!”

Some cursing and scraped pedes later, Blitzwing held the bulky box in his servos. Unceremoniously, he flipped the switch, and the little bulbs lining the ceiling and walls dimly flickered to life.

“Ta daaa! Isn't it gorgeous? And it only took usss-“ Bumblebee checked his internal clock, “Six breems!”

“Six breems for something like this?” 

“Well, we were working in the dark-“

“ **BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T LET US TURN ON A FRAGGING LIGHT SWITCH!** ”

“IT WAS FOR THE DRAMATIC EFFECT! Okay, so it isn’t Fortress Maximus,” Bumblebee asserted as he strode around the room, taking in the soft, multicolored lights, “But we can add our own touches to it, bring some data pads down here…” the yellow mech suppressed a cry of pain as his pede dented against a rock. “Maybe some pillows and thermal blankets too, while we’re at it.”

From his place behind him, blitzwing shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t have many personal assets of my own, it’ll be mostly your stuff.”  This statement made bumblebee pause.

“You don’t have anything?” Bee cocked his helm over his shoulder plate, “I mean, I get packing lightly, but nothing?” When all the other mech could offer was a stiff shrug, bumblebee turned fully around to face him, “what about a favorite holo-vid?”

“Eeehh..”

“Data pad?”

_Whirrrr_

“ **IF THIS IS PITY, THEN I DON’T NEED IT, BUG** !”

“Woah woah woah-“ bumblebee held up his servos non threateningly, “Don't get me wrong, the fact you’re as uncultured as a newborn sparkling is  _ sad _ , but I don’t pity ya. Just, you don’t have anything? What do you like to do, other than following the coolest mech this side of the galaxy around?”  Blitzwing ex vented softly and sat down, leaning his back struts against the rough wall. Bumblebee squeezed in next to him, pressing against his side.

“If you..really want to know. Well it’s hard to say- my memories are fried.”

When the larger mech fell silent again, Bumblebee peered up, pursing his dermas together.

“...Does it have to do with that ‘operation’ thing you told me about?”

In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have asked. In one moment Bee was sitting on the ground, the next he was jolted to his back. Blitzwing had stood up with such force that the cave around him rumbled, stray gravel trailing down the sides of the walls. Surprisingly, the larger mech didn’t say anything, merely trembling with fury, but the yellow mech couldn’t tell whether it was directed at him or not. The beige helm was turned away from him, and his cooling fans were cycling loudly. Blitzwing was still, statuesque other than the heaving of his torso and twitching of his balled up servos.

After a klik of pregnant silence, Bumblebee took a cautious step forward. When the knight remained still, he bridged the rest of the space between them and slowly put a servo Blitzwing’s thigh; the movement was awarded with a flinch.

“Hey, hey. It’s just me, okay? I-I’m sorry, yanno, if I brought up something bad.”

The larger mech seemed to relax a little at these words, and he cautiously let the tension out of his chassis. Bumblebee could see the thin, glistening lines of energon in the grooves of Blitzwing’s servos where his digits had pressed too hard.  “Are you okay?” The yellow prince murmured.

“Yes! I mean, I’ve had worse than this.” Blitzwing examined his servos and hastily wiped the remaining energon on his arms, streaking them pink.

“You know what? Let’s not talk about you, if that’s what bothers ya. How about we talk abouttt...me! I’m super well versed in the topic of me!”  He had thought about it on a whim, if Blitzwing wasn’t ready to share about himself, than Bee would be more than happy to fill in for him. So he talked, kliks turning into breems as he recounted everything his memory banks could pull up. The conversation was mostly one sided, unless one of Blitzwing’s faces spun around to offer its own opinion on what was happening. Bumblebee couldn’t help but feel dissparkened, he didn’t know why, but he wanted to know everything about the mech before him, why he had that weird accent, what was under that masked helmet, what was the operation, was he single-

Okay, maybe not that last one, but the others he craved to know.

“And that’s how I passed the elite guard weapons test at only five hundred stellar cycles!” The yellow mech held his chin up with a touch of pride as he finished off his latest recantment. “Everything was easy, especially the sword fighting portion.”

“You have a proficiency in sword fighting?”

Oh slag, those were the most words he’s said since he had started talking! Bumblebee crossed his arms and leaned back on a rock, determined to play it cool. “Psh, I mean, yeah, I don’t wanna brag,” he said, knowing full well he wanted to, “But I can pretty much drive out an entire ‘con army with nothing but me and a blade.”

“Sounds impressive,” Blitzwing’s vocalizer was laced with sarcasm, “if that’s so, then what do you need a whole group of trained guards for?”

“Oh, well, yanno, any good warrior needs his living shield. I mean look at ya, Blitz, you’re built like a tank!” He leaned over and knocked against the beige mech’s torso.

The larger mechs face whirled around again, “Awww, and here I thought I was somebody special!”

“Hey, don’t worry big bot! I’ll let you die for me first, if that makes ya feel better,”

“My, how gracious of you, your majesty,”

Bumblebee laughed and lied down on the damp floor, minding the cold about as much as he minded using a bulky rock for a pillow. 

“So, you really think you’re the best swordsbot this side of the universe?” Blitzwing asked, his tone light but laced with objection.

“What? You wanna test that theory?”

Bumblebee sat up again, ignoring the aching strain of his neck cables. Beside him, the knight shrugged, seemingly nonchalant.

“A little friendly competition never hurt anybot, I suppose.”

A wide grin dashed bumblebees faceplates, “Pick a time, I’ll be down here ready to kick your aft, Blitzbrain.” The yellow mech was then interrupted from his own cockiness by a ping from his internal systems; low fuel, it warned him. From his place next to Bee, Blitzwing stood up, seemingly getting the same warning.

“Tomorrow, then?”

“Tomorrow it is, Blitzbrain.”

It only occurred to Bumblebee, as his helm hit the pillow that lunar cycle, that he actually hadn’t used swords in combat since that weapons test. And the mech he fought against had been roughly his build, not several size classes above him.

Oh, he had an intake with a death wish, didn’t he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter seems rushed at all, school is in a few days and I’ve been running around trying to get all my shit in order.   
> Also have y’all ever listened to “I Feel You” by Depeche Mode? It’s really good and has blitzbee vibes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter where the tag ‘Homoerotic sword fights’ comes into play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4/20 eyyyy
> 
> Also, thanks to everyone whose bookmarked, kudos’d and commented so far! Y’all the real mvp’s

“Wow, you actually have a sword.”

“Well, I couldn’t expect this ship to have an armory adjusted to my size.” Bumblebee gawked up at his friend, a translucent yellow sabre glowing softly in his servo. In the other mechs grasp was a violet rapier, pulsing with the same energy. Just as promised, they both agreed to show up back at the cave tomorrow, provided they had their own swords. And slag it all if blitzwing didn’t do just that, unfortunately.

“Heh, uh, wonderful, you have a blade that’s almost as long as me, super.” 

It was not super, at least not in Bumblebee’s opinion. He had spent the whole solar cycle half dreading, half anticipating this upcoming match, swiping the air in his berthroom with unpracticed skill. He’d read something once, an earth archive translated into a data pad, something about a ‘David’ and a ‘Goliath’, how the David used his cleverness to win, even though he was small.

Easy for him to say, his giant didn’t have a _fragging sword_ big enough to _shish kebab_ him.

“Is the little Prince Bumblebot scared~?” Blitzwing was hunched forward, servos on his kneeplates. Bumblebee could tell even with the helmet on that there was an audial splitting grin on the knights faceplates. Terrified or not, he wasn’t gonna stand there and be taunted.

“Shut it! I’m not!”

“The teeny tiny bee bot thinks I’ll slice him in half! I’d sooner step on you than be able to dice you up!” A black servo landed on top of him, tilting his helm to and fro with such force that his neck cables began to ache. Bumblebee vaguely recognized the action as ‘petting’. 

“I’m not short! You’re just a gargantuan who's gonna end up stepping on his pedes while I leave you in the dust!” Maybe not his best comeback, but he was also trying to shove a giant servo off his helm. Once he pried the appendage off the yellow mech took two steps back, stealing his shaking servos and gripping his weapon. Bee had many regrets in his life, one of them being stupid enough to challenge someone three times his size class to a sword match. “Uh, j-just so we’re, like, clear on everything, no injuries if we can help it, okay? Just one hit and that’s game.”

“Okie dokie!”

Bumblebee’s nerves unwinded for a nanoklik, a serenity that was quickly dashed when he saw a beige and purple blur zoom at him, engines roaring. The yellow mech was just able to dodge the offending blade, steadying himself on shaky legs in time to see a giant boulder, split in two with a purple sword lodged in the middle.

“I said no injuries!”

_Whirrr_

“Technically, I didn’t touch you.” 

“You were close! Damn, blitz, you turned that thing to rubble!”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re so fast.”

Bee was about to snap back again, but blitzwing was rushing forward and the prince had to dodge again, falling into a game of cybercat and turbomouse. A gleeful laugh ripped from his intake, despite the inherent danger of being chased around by a thirty pede tall warmech brandishing a massive rapier, bumblebee was having a fun time running around, fear and excitement sending adrenaline coursing through his energon lines.

The yellow mech skidded on his bottom tires, reveling in the scent of burnt rubber as he drifted across the cave floor. In a moment of adrenaline fueled recklessness, bumblebee braced himself and drove up the rocky wall, somehow managing to gain enough velocity to not only race up the entire length, but ever off at the last nanoklik, kicking his pedes off the ruddy stone. Just like that he was airborne, all his senses firing at once in a cacophonic buzz. His chassis narrowly managed to avoid being scraped by the stalactites that leered down at him. In his moment of flight, thrill was the only word close enough to describe the way his spark skyrocketed; he was weightless, he was suspended with time drifting at a turbosnail’s pace, he was speechless with a million things to say, he was about to have a spark attack, he-

He had also forgotten that on this planet, gravity existed. Reality sped up and hit him hard as his brief eternity of airtime was over and he was careening towards the ground. The short shriek that emitted from his vocalizer was cut off when a large servo wrapped around his middle. Bumblebee’s head spun with stars as energon rushed to his head, hazy optics finally coming into focus to see Blitzwing still clutching him upside down, holding him out like a wet cybercat.

“...That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen you do.”

“Yeah, but Primus was it awesome.”

As his senses fell back down to him, he became acutely aware that his dagger was still clutched firm in his servo, and never one to pass up an opportunity, grasped it with the other servo and swung up. He just missed the thick, red glass of Blitzwing’s helmet as the mech gave an uncharacteristic noise of surprise and dropped him. This time the yellow mech didn’t have anyone to stop his fall, but his drop was at a much more forgiving height, and it didn’t take long for him to recover. When he was up on his pedes Blitzwing was swinging again, despite his earlier misgivings, Bumblebee had managed to catch the other mech off guard, he could even have a chance of winning.

“Gonna have to be a lot faster than that, Blitzbrain!” The prince taunted him after leaping over the purple blade, engines roaring with excitement. He kicked his wheels in reverse and jerked around to face the knight from behind, if he could just nick the back of his kibble, scrape his pede, the smallest cut with a sword counted and-

Oh. He was still moving backwards. The yellow mech tried stomping down, but that somehow made them speed up faster. Scrap. Frag. 

“BlitzwAAAUUGGGGH- _OUF_ -“

Bumblebee’s attempt to call for help ended with him crashing back first into the unforgiving jagged edges of the wall, tires still squealing as they tried to go even further back.

Blitzwing stood still, likely gawking at what in the frag just happened; after all, Bumblebee wasn’t going anywhere. When the initial shock faded, all the beige mech had to do was stroll right on over and place his sword under the prince’s chin. Blitzwing stood still, likely gawking at what in the frag just happened; after all, Bumblebee wasn’t going anywhere. When the initial shock faded, all the beige mech had to do was stroll right on over and place his sword under the prince’s chin. The yellow mech’s helm tilted back as the blade quickly retreated and cut a shallow mark, a thin trail of energon slowly crawling down his neck cables, blue optics wide and locked onto the thick, red glass that concealed the other mechs gaze.

“Looks like I win, Bumblebot.”

It took him a full breem to register what the other mech was saying. 

“Wha- you, YOU!”

“Me?”

“You...whatever. I let you win that.”

“Of course you did. Here.” Blitzwing sheathed his rapier and held a servo out to help Bee up. “You should see Ratchet about those,” the knight suggested, gesturing to the dents and scrapes on his back.

“Ugghh,” Bumblebee groaned as he got to his pedes, tossing his helm back. “This is the second time I’ve had to see him this week, and I don’t think the ‘cement mixer’ excuse is gonna cut it this time,”

“How about an unfortunate incident involving you recharge-walking and a couple flights of stairs?”

“Yeah, I can work with that.”

Conversation was kept light as they walked back through the tunnels, following the yellow paint streaks bee had left when the pair had first found the abandoned mining camp. 

“Aren’t you glad I risked the last of my paint job for this?” Bumblebee asked as he ran a servo over the slowly fading canary yellow scraped on the rocks.

“ **IT TOOK US THE REST OF THE CYCLE TO GET OUT BECAUSE YOU INSISTED ON CRASHING AGAINST EVERY OTHER BOULDER YOU SAW**!”

“And it woulda taken us twice as long to find the cave again if I didn’t leave trail marks!”

“ **THAT** -“

_Whirrr_

“Actually makes sense. Huh, you had a good idea for once.”

“It happens, yanno. I’m more than just my dashing good looks.”

After that words were scarce, with Blitzwing never being one to initiate a conversation and Bumblebee’s helm lost in thoughts of their match. It wasn’t until they were back in the stale air of the basement that the yellow mech piped up again. “I wanna be a flier when I grow up, Blitz.“

The larger mech paused, servos stopped in the middle of readjusting the panel that covered the tunnel. 

“One, you’re already a grown mech. Two, it doesn’t work like that.” He further emphasized his point by slamming the panel back into place. Bumblebee merely huffed and placed a servo on his spark casing

“You’re killing me, blitz. You’re killing my dream.” The aforementioned mech ex vented and stood up, making a beeline for the stairs.

“A dream that you’ve had for all of five breems?”

“Yeah!” Bumblebee answered as he jogged along to catch up with the beige mech, “So what if it was only for like, a nanoklik, it was amazing! I’d wanna do it all solar cycle! It’s not like you’d know how it felt.”

“You’d be surprised what I know,”

“Yeah, sure I would.” The two mechs reached the top of the stairs, stepping into the vacant hallway that greeted them. They likely wouldn’t see each other for quite some time, not if they wanted this to keep going. If anyone found out, it would be all ‘ _You can’t have fun, Bee_ ’ this, and _‘Allspark allspark blah blah blah-_ ‘ that. 

“Have a good recharge cycle, Blitz.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Bee.”

And with that they parted.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief interlude feat. Ratchet, who just wants to sleep, Bumblebee, whose bad at lying, Blitzwing, whose great at lying, and Megan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon? *throws my head back and laughs like a privileged rich character in a 90s anime* don’t know her.

“AGAIN?!”

“Yeah,  _ again _ .”

Ratchet threw his helm back and groaned, as if being a medic wasn’t his entire function’s purpose. “Alright, you know the drill,”

Indeed Bumblebee did. The aforementioned mech ex vented before dragging himself over to the stiff recharge slab in the middle of the med bay. “Trust me, I don’t want to be in here any more than you do, doc bot.” The yellow mech complained before plopping down onto the berth.

“I’d believe that, except recently it seems you’re going out of your way to damage your chassis in every conceivable way possible!” Ratchet grumbled away as he shuffled back and forth, blinking away sleep from his optics as he reached for the necessary tools, “Dents on your back, right? Turn around.”

Bumblebee did as told with little complaint. Ratchet, however, had a few words.

“Sheesh, kid,” the old medic clicked his glossa as he approached the slab, “What did you do? Impale yourself on a couple rocks for fun?”

“HUH?!” Bumblebee’s drowsy helm shot up, optics lit up with panic, “WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ROCKS?!”

“Uh-“

“DID I SAY ROCKS? I MEAN, UH-“ The prince reset his vocalizer a few times, a desperate hacking not unlike a cybercat with a hairball caught in its intake. “What I meant waaaaas- I was recharge walking last night, and I took a trip down a flight of stairs. Funny, huh?”

“If that we’re the case, there’d be a lot more dents on the front.”

“I was, uh- moonwalking?”

He could feel the burn marks in the back of his neck cables from Ratchet’s squinting gaze.

“I mean, there is a problem with my tires, whenever I switch them to reverse I can’t stop em.”

“Right…”

The old medic started his work quietly, leaving Bee alone to his thoughts in the silence. The judgey, judgemental silence. He could feel minute irritations on his armor as dents were heated and cooled, pressuring them to pop back awkwardly into place.

“Alright.” Ratchet spoke up after a time, lifting the welding mask from his faceplates, “they aren’t entirely even, but they shouldn’t be too noticeable. You’re gonna need some paint touch ups, too, let me get that.”

Bumblebee shifted uncomfortably as Ratchet stepped away again, fidgeting this way and that now that the old medic’s gaze was no longer burning into his back. Bee was usually an ace at lying, got away with it all the time unless he was caught in the act. He blamed the pain from the dents poking at his internal parts contributing to his lack of sleep. Then again, even on his best days it was nigh impossible that Ratchet wasn’t able to pry the truth from his intake. Personally he blamed those optics; those judgy, judgy optics.

the cold sting of spray paint hit his backplates, accompanied by the low screech of compressed air. “You know, kid,” The aforementioned mech quipped after a time, “I get it, sort of. I wasn’t sparked herding injured mechs into medbays. I had options, and I didn’t like any of ‘em, side effect of bein’ a rebellious youth, I suppose. Point is, you’re a kid, you’re allowed to have fun, and all that. But please, next time you’re about to do something reckless, naive, and or stupid, I implore you to think:  _ If I were to horribly injure myself doing this, would Ratchet want to get up at the aftcrack of dawn to deal with it?  _ If the answer is anything but  _ please, let the old mech SLEEP,  _ I strongly suggest you choose otherwise.”

The chilled spray ceased, fresh yellow coating quickly hardening in the air. “Okay, you’re all set, Bumblebee.”

“Thanks, doc bot!” The yellow mech replied cheerfully, hopping down from the recharge slab, “And uh, I’ll try to be more careful, okay?”

“Please, for my recharge schedules sake, do.”

Bumblebee gave a quick salute and kicked his back wheels into reverse, wanting to make a quick getaway from the old medic. Ratchet furrowed his brow at the sight, then turned his leer down to the floor, tapping his chin slowly until realization bloomed on his face. He cupped a servo around his faceplates to yell, “Wait, what did you say about your whee-“

He was answered by a loud crash at the end of the hallway. He wanted to cry. 

“It’s okay! I’m fine!” Bumblebee ran back into Ratchet’s visual field, sporting no visible scuff marks. The medic’s posture relaxed as he rubbed his temple. 

“Ugh, kid, you nearly gave me a spark attack. Okay, no more wheels for the time being. I’ll check ‘em out later; right now I wanna catch up on some well deserved recharge.”

Bumblebee clicked his glossa and shot the old medic some finger guns, dashing off again- this time on his pedes. When the yellow mech was out of sight, Ratchet ex vented to himself and began to clean up, pausing to glance up at the wall.

“Do you know what’s up with him?”

Silence was all he received for an answer.

“Yeah, me neither, old pal.”

*************

[ _ And you’re positive you’re getting through to him? _ ]

If it had been any other mech he was comming, he would’ve bit out some sarcastic reply. Seeing as it wasn’t, however, he clamped down his need to retort, [ _ As it is, I am making quite a headway into gaining vital information. Autobots are quite talkative when they think they’re with a friend. _ ]

As the mech on the other line no doubt took this in with his usual flake of rust, Blitzwing flicked his optic to the shuddering light in the corner of the basement and resisted the urge to punch it out. He tore his gaze away and down to his servos as he waited for his commander to respond.

[ _ I see. Well, do keep sending in reports to shockwave, I’m sure he’d be delighted to hear the intel you’re gathering on earth. _ ]

Blitzwing wasn’t sure if Shockwave was delighted by anything, but agreed nonetheless, [ _ it shall be done, my lord. _ ] 

[ _ Wonderful. Blitzwing, may I ask you one last thing? _ ]

It wasn’t as if he had much of a choice, [ _ Yes, lord Megatron? _ ]

[ _ Do tell his majesty I said hi.] _

Blitzwing felt his spark seize up oddly at the mention of Bumblebee, a feeling that didn’t go away when Megatron’s laugh haunted his audials before the comm. line cut out. He looked down at the ground next to his pedes, then to that annoying, flickering light. After breems of processing this new emotion (he didn’t get them often) the mech concluded it was terror, of course, it was rare that any mech wasn’t paralyzed by the decepticon warlord. But this fear in such a force was new, not even half of it the mech felt for himself.

For once, Blitzwing was scared for someone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEEEEWW so sorry this is a day late!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> UGH enough with the BORING PLOT SHIT. Let’s get back to the real reason y’all are here: snowball fights and gentle pining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BRUUUHHHH I leave for a WEEK and when I get back I’m swamped with all this positive stuff???? Thank you all so much, this fic is getting way more attention than I originally anticipated

It had been cycles since Blitzwing and Bumblebee’s duel, and their meetups continued being just as erratic as they were. Solar cycles began to grow shorter than lunar cycles. Odder still, this wasn’t the only drastic change in the atmosphere that the two mechs noticed took place.

It was getting colder.

And colder, and colder still. When it had reached the point where Bumblebee’s plating almost rattled off his protoform when his engine nearly gave out trying to keep him warm, he and Blitzwing mutually agreed to stop their visits to the cave, just for now.

Something, however, caught Bumblebee’s attention one solar cycle. A noise, low but incessant, coming from the basement.

Now, if one had seen as many slasher flicks as Bee has, one would know that investigating a mysterious sound from your basement is the number one way to get murderized. But whatever cautionary tale those cheesy vids tried to teach went in one audial and out the other, so down into the basement he went.

Investigating further, the yellow mech found that the source came from behind the secret wall panel, upon which prying open he was gifted with a blast of cold air that rattled through his plating. Eurrgh. Cold.

When the initial shock of the chill faded, Bumblebee wrapped himself around his arms, daring to venture further in despite his shivering. He strained his audial receptors, trying to trace the noise through the echoes of the tunnel. His systems repeatedly alerted him that it was too cold for this slag, that if he didn’t find someplace warmer that his body would forcefully shut itself down and become a beesicle. But since when did Bumblebee ever follow anyone’s rules? Never. 

The princes’ trek had found him back at his cave- their cave. And the continuous low groan of- whatever it was he was looking for, had become as loud as bumblebee thought he could stand it, the origin seemingly coming from the very back of the cavern. Bumblebee kicked one of the work lights on, shadows retreating quickly away from the shuddering brightness. The yellow mech hiked past the rubble, what was left of the campsite that he and Blitzwing never bothered to clear out. It was when he was pushing past a pile of broken organic planks when he felt it. 

A draft. 

Forgetting all thoughts of shivering, Bumblebee shoved the planks away and dashed to trace the source, feeling the hints of wind already begin to bite at his plating. There, a couple steps ahead was a shoddily boarded up entrance to a tunnel, and the mech now realized what he had been hearing this whole time was wind. If he had wished for excitement, an escape route to the outside world was certainly a dream come true.

The prince let out a small chirp of excitement before leaping forward, eager to tear the slats away. In an instant he armed his stingers, eager to blast away the rotting organic material.

“You’ll send splinters everywhere if you do it like that.”

“ _FRAG_!!” Bumblebee screeched, jumping a mile into the air. He didn’t even need to stumble around to know who had followed him, but did so anyway just to glare at the larger mech.

Bee disengaged his stingers and put his servos on his hips, “Primus, Blitzy! What have I said about you being all sneaky like that?” He scolded.

“That it’s the most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen and I should do it more often?”

“Guess again.”

“Ooh, how’d you know I like guessing games?” The knight placed a finger under the chin of his helmet, tilting his head to the side, “I spy with my little optic something yellow and small. Real tiny. Itty bitty. Minuscule, microscopic, littl-“

“I’m not answering that.” Bumblebee huffed and crossed his arms, averting his gaze to the floor. Despite the biting freeze of the cavern, he felt inflamed down to his spark casing.

“You’re just a sore loser then! And short.”

“Peh. Whatever. How did you even know I was down here anyway?”

_Whirrrr_

“You’re not the only one with free time and a bored processor.” A careful tiptoe around an actual answer. 

Bumblebee, never one to look too far into things, let the subject drop. “Okay, so- you gonna help me with this, or what?” The yellow mech motioned with a servo over to the boarded up tunnel in question

“I can try my servo at it, yes.” 

Blitzwing walked past Bumblebee, still being way quieter than a mech his size had any right to be, and lowered the twin cannons on his back. A new breed of worry suddenly edged into the back gears of Bumblebee’s processor, a morbid curiosity almost as to how much damage a mech like Blitzwing could actually inflict; it simply wasn’t something he had thought about until presented with the idea. Any anxieties about cave-ins or scattered earth material flying and scarring his faceplates were short lived, however, as the beige mechs’ cannons fired, blue and cold, onto their desired target, somehow dropping the already frigid tempurature of the cavern.

With a swift kick, the frosted over slats gave way with a satisfying crunch, sending their remnants to the floor.

“DUDE,” Bumblebee yelled, standing slack jawed in awe before turning his helm to Blitzwing, “THAT WAS SUCH AN EPIC GAMER MOMENT!”

“A what??”

“Never mind, I’ll explain later.” The yellow mech waved a dismissive servo at the knight. Bumblebee stepped around his large friend, blue optics eagerly peering into the now exposed gaping maw of the tunnel. Darkness glared back at him, ready to swallow up all his eager sunshine-ness and blanket it with shadow, almost as unwelcoming as the wind that tore and bit through his plating, down to the squishiest parts of his protoform. Discouraging though they may be, the taste of adventure was right on the tip of Bee’s glossa, which to the yellow mech was more than worth it for anything these tunnels threw his way. “Ya comin’, Blitzbrain?”

The aforementioned mech shrugged, despite the nonchalance there was a tension that had disappeared from his shoulders, one Bumblebee knew well, but simply didn’t recognize until it was gone. The thought he might be responsible for that sent a little pulse to his spark, and maybe the unbearably freezing cavern became just a tad warmer, too.

“Well then, what are we waiting for? Adventure awaits.”

_Whiirrr_

“You know the rules, little mechs first, Bumblebot!”

  
  


*********   
  
  


Frag. It was cold. Freeze your aft-plate off cold. He hated this. Why did he do this?

Bitter thoughts hammered Bumblebee through his Primus forsaken processor as he shakily plodded on, servos gripping his arms in a futile attempt to retain some warmth. The little yellow mech just barely managed not to look like an out of control jackhammer with how much he was shivering. Not five pedesteps away was Blitzwing, marching along as soldierly as ever, like this cold was just a little nip in the air. Stupid mech probably had an engine the size of a house, of course this would be nothing to him-

His subconscious stream of envious babbling was cut off when he felt a large servo encapsulate his shoulders and pull him towards Blitzwing’s side, where he was pleasantly surprised to find that the beige mech was indeed as warm and toasty as he had suspected in his musings. Not wanting to risk being pushed away to the horrid frost again, Bumblebee remained quiet and allowed the beige mech to guide them both through the dark tunnel, and in exchange for a rare moment of silence he got a walking generator. Sort of. 

“Maybe we should bring generators to the cave when it gets like this.” The yellow mech mused aloud. Blitzwing acknowledged him with a curt hum and nothing else.

The more their walk continued, the lighter it became on the other side of whatever they were supposed to be reaching. When Bumblebee could finally start to see the outline of Blitzwing’s armor he started to stray a few steps ahead of him, excitement overtaking his pitiful self preservation instincts. Colors started slowly bleeding into the tunnel, and Bee started walking further ahead, picking .up his usual routine of chatting a mile a minute.

“What do you think is out there, blitz? I mean, it has to be different than the last time I was up there, it was hot, then.”

“How can that be? A planet just turning hot and cold whenever it feels like it, how do the tiny little organically adjust?”

“Promise you can keep a secret?”

“More than you’ll ever know about.”

“Okay, I think they can change their armor.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! See, one cycle they’re wearing something and the next they’re wearing something completely different! It’s really wack, huh?”

“Super wack. What did it look like when you were with them?

“The last time I was up there, there were these really tall things with green spikes at the end called trees, and a bunch of other green bushy things, but I didn’t get to see those much. I was mostly in their city, which actually looks a bit like Iacon except-“

He was interrupted by a crunch.

A sting of cold shot up from his pede to his hip joint in that instant. Bumblebee let out a small gasp and bent down, holding up his foot to inspect the bottom of his pede. There, small, white and frigid, wedged in the grooves of his pedes was...something.

“Woah…” Bee tilted his helm to the side, nearly toppling over from his awkward flamingo position, “what is that?”

Blitzwing crouched down next to him, evidently just as boggled as he was, “Well, whatever it is, there’s more of it.”

“Huh?”

Blitzwing straightened back up and pointed forward. In the pale light, more of the crispy, white substance was scattered about, gathering more and more until it nearly blocked what could be seen of the tunnel. Bumblebee’s optics widened and, before he could stop himself, the yellow mech broke into a run, shouldering past the damp and almost unbearably cold organic substance.

Light assaulted him all of a sudden, and Bumblebee hissed as he squinted his optics, blinking away the blindness that dappled his vision field. As his sight was regained, the prince was taken aback at what he saw.

White. The world was covered in white, from the ground to the bare skeletons of the trees, even the sky itself was dotted with puffy alabaster, reminiscent of the clouds on cybertron; except these clouds weren’t spewing acid, or hurling wicked thunder. It was a delightful change of pace. 

So caught up was he in the sight, he almost didn’t notice Blitzwing coming up behind him. 

_ Crr-unch _

Bumblebee’s optics snapped back into focus, whirling his helm to the side to see the beige mech standing next to him, ankle-deep in white. 

“Well. This is different.” The beige mech so thoroughly observed.

“Yeah...it was a lot greener last time I was up here.” Bumblebee scratched his cheek.

Blitzwing pointed over to a cluster of bare oak trunks in the far distance, spindly branches interwoven with each other. “Are those the trees you talked about?” He asked.

“Yeah. They were green, too. You think this white stuff had anything to do with that?” Bumblebee glanced down to his pedes, shins swallowed up by the frigid fluff.

“That would certainly be unfortunate, to go all this way only to find out that this is some sort of flesh eating virus that slowly eats you from the inside out.”

“That would suck, huh?”

“Mhm.”

The two suddenly became very uncomfortable with the idea of spending any more time out there. Blitzwing slowly started shuffling away back into the supposed safety of the tunnel. Bumblebee, however, decided if today was the day he died, he would embrace it. Spreading his arms out on either side of him to form a perfect ‘T’, the yellow mech leaned all his weight forward and fell down with a soft  _ plop _ into the layers of powdery whatever-it-was.

“ **WHAT THE FRAG ARE YOU DOING?!** ” Blitzwing asked calmly.

“I put my gender down as ‘unkillable’ in a questionnaire once and nothing bad has happened to me since, I think we’re fine.” A yellow servo shot up from the Bumblebee-shaped indent in the frost, “Now help your prince up, please.”

Thwarted by his superior logic yet again, Blitzwing grumbled to himself as he bent down and pulled Bumblebee up out of his snowy tomb.

“Any ideas on what to do first, Bumblebot?”

“Hmmmmm…” The aforementioned mech rubbed his chin in thought.  “Well, there’s a lot of this white stuff around,” he said, tentatively crunching some of the powder between his digits and slowly balling it up as he talked, “So maybe...we coullllddddd THINKFAST-“

Without warning, he punted the lumpy, half formed sphere at Blitzwing, hitting his target on the windshield.  Pregnant silence followed. Blitzwing kept his helm fixed on Bumblebee as he activated his windshield wipers, ridding what was left of the sad little projectile. Bumblebee’s face flushed warm as he lowered his arm, too caught up in his own embarrassment to notice the beige mech bending down, collecting a hefty amount of frigid fluff in his arms, molding it into a balled up wad and OH NO-

Bumblebee realized all too late what was going on and tried to run away, wading awkwardly through the sea of white.  _“SLAG SLAG SLAG SLAG SLAG SLAG-“_

He got a meter or so ahead before he was struck from behind by the cold missile, sending him toppling down like the yellow, bowling pin twink that he was. The prince burst from his frosty tomb, servos flailing. Blitzwing took his sweet time coming over, an amused smirk radiating through from his concealed face.  When the mech finally arrived Bumblebee had cleared his faceplates, blue glare fixed furiously on the knight before him. 

Blitzwing burst into laughter and clutched his side, incoherent sputterings of “Oh my Primus look at your face,” and “You look so adorable when you’re angry,” punctuating his howls of laughter.  This only served to further infuriate Bumblebee, who, with as much dignity as he could scrounge up, stomped forward and declared war on the beige mech.

A very foolish decision, it turns out.

The rest of the sunlight was spent with Bumblebee running away from Blitzwing’s gargantuan sized attacks, and Bee managing to get in a few of his own. Most of them ineffective, but the yellow mech did manage to get a surprise attack on the shoulder, promptly hooting about his victory and giving away his hiding place, which not a second later was pelted with a barrage of attacks. The once pristine, untouched landscape was turned into a no mechs land, and by twilight Bumblebee’s joints were screaming at him to surrender.

“STOP!” The yellow mech cried, buried up to his waist, “TRUCE! I CALL TRUCE!” 

Blitzwing paused, an avalanche worth of snow in his arms, 

“Well, it is getting dark. I wouldn’t want to be out here with whatever creatures this planet inhabits.” 

The knight casually set his armory to the side with a  _ flomph _ before pulling Bumblebee up from his partial tomb. The prince was shivering hard enough that his dental plates clacked together in a frantic rhythm.  Just as Blitzwing was about to lower him back into the cold, he jutted out his arms, optics wide.

“WAIT-“ Bee yelled, “It’s cold. I’m cold. Please, save a poor mech from dying out in this storm,” there was no storm, “Oh! The light! I see the light; grandmama, is that you?”

“You don’t even  _ have  _ a grandma.” Blitzwing argued, but begrudgingly complied with Bee’s wish, bringing the small mech back up to his torso. Bumblebee purred in contentment, pressing into the curve of his armor, more than happy enough to be jostled around as the knight trudged back to the tunnel. 

But just as he had settled in comfortably, almost on the verge of recharge, did something prick his nose.

Bumblebee’s optics snapped open immediately, helm twisting this way and that to try and find the source of his sudden ire. Then he was hit with another drop on his forehead, then on his horn, and soon his whole chassis began tingling with the sensation. Blitzwing must’ve felt it too, because the larger mech stopped, his helm turned to the sky. Bumblebee followed his gaze, face scrunched up in confusion.

He almost gasped at what he saw.

Above them, a million tiny, white flakes were dancing down, kissing the earth with their gentle touch. The pair hadn’t noticed due to the dark, but a swarm of clouds had gathered overhead, no doubt the cause of the quiet storm surrounding them. They stood there like that, still, letting the flakes coat them and the rest of the earth, for as far as the optic could see. It struck Bumblebee then, that they would cover up what had happened here today, or that all of it could melt away, leaving nothing more than a memory. Blitzwing started moving again. 

A feeling of wholeness washed over him, a void that he hadn't even considered empty until he was here now, huddled up next to his only friend, watching the delicate shower in the tattered light of the moon. It was back in the dark of the tunnel that he spoke. 

“You know, Blitzbrain...sometimes it’s good to be alive.”

“...Yes,” Blitzwing whispered, tightening his grip on the mech in his arms, “I suppose it is, Bumblebot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me trying to come up with ways to say snow without actually saying snow: help me


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh???? You want a chapter filled with exposition???? Some fuckinghn mutually pining and emotionally constipated FOOLS????? Well you’ve come to the right place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Creeper....

“Okay...okayyyyy- oh! Here, here it is!”

Bumblebee stifled a grunt in his vocalizer as he yanked a dusty datapad out from the shelf, consequently sending about a dozen other old archives scattering to the ground. He and Blitzwing had been in the library all day, searching for a lost data pad Optimus had requested during his last video comm. Bee had called upon the help and company of the beige mech when hours of searching quickly transpired into boredom. Blitzwing had been surprisingly helpful in the process throughout, earning himself the title of the only mech in existence who could keep Bumblebee concentrated on a task that didn’t involve being reckless, careless, or otherwise unheeding. 

As the two mechs picked up the fallen data pads and carefully shoved them back into the shelves, Bumblebee reflected upon the past few cycles he spend with the knight. Bee chose to neglect more and more of his duties to squeeze in as much time per cycle with him as possible. I mean, they weren’t that important, right? It was just watching a rock- not even a whole rock, a  _ piece  _ of a rock, and write about how absolutely okay the rock was doing to three other mechs all scattered who knows where whose job was the exact same thing. Really, it wasn’t the greatest contribution to society, Bumblebee had the feeling a few measly reports wouldn’t terribly wound the Autobot cause, he could always just fill them in with the same fluff he always did if Ratchet started getting suspicious. 

“‘ _ The History of the Great War: The Decepticon Archives _ ’? Ooh, no wonder Optimus wanted this back, this thing looks pretty- hey!”

The datapad was yanked out of his hands by a pair of large, black servos. Blitzwing cradled the pad to his chest like it was the word of Primus themselves. 

“What gives, Blitzbrain?” 

“ **WHAT?! CAN’T I READ SOMETHING, TOO?** ” There was an edge of discomfort in his voicebox.

“Why would you want some old book about Decepticons? If you’re bored enough to read I’ve got way better suggestions for ya.”

“Then show them to me.”

At once Bumblebee’s faceplates lit up, making that wretched, increasingly familiar ache in Blitzwing’s spark twitch. Ew. Emotion. Bee dashed over to a nearby shelf, excitedly raving about his favorite selections. As he was talking, the beige mech discreetly shoved the withering data pad away in between some random stack on one of the long tables, hoping that Bee would simply forget about the task at hand in the midst of his jabbering. This Optimus mech wouldn’t miss some old book that bad, would he? Either way Blitzwing didn’t care. He was a decepticon, it was his duty not to care about Autobots.

He snapped out of his daze when Bumblebee’s servos grazed along the spine of some fantasy pad about a prince and a dragon. “This one is one of my favorites,” he explained, reaching up on the tip of his pedes to try and snag it. Oh gross. There’s that ache again. “I used to read it all the time back when I was a newspark.”

With a small hop the prince was able to yank out the pad from its shelf, evidence of old age apparent in its casing. The glyphs on the screen flickered and dimmed, even if it were perfectly intact, Blitzwing wouldn’t have been able to read a single word of it; it was all written in Autobot.

“Looks interesting,” he murmured in approval, “Would you mind reading it to me?”

At once, Bumblebee’s fans whirred to a stop, optics wide as saucers.

“Wait, like, really? Oh wow, I haven’t read this in like, forever! Okay, so, it starts off with this guy right here, and he’s trying to take over the kingdom or whatever, right? So-“

The yellow mech started launching right into the story, his posture slowly growing from anxious to relaxed. By the first chapter he was sitting with his legs criss cross on the floor, blue optics wide as he read out the lines with vigor, going so far as to imitate voices for different characters. Blitzwing sat across from him, helm in one servo as he listened to Bumblebee prattle on. As odd as it was, he was compelled to listen to every word zooming out a mile a minute from the yellow mech’s intake. Gross. Disgusting. Absolutely vile. He loved it. 

Neither had been keeping track of the time, so when Bumblebee was nearing the end of the story, cold had started seeping into his joints from the cold, dark night outside. The yellow mech looked up, neck cables groaning from disuse. Like Bee, Blitzwing hadn’t moved much from his position; when Bee’s helm shot up, so did his. Their gazes met, fixed to each other for what seemed like an eternity.

When blue optics met the unfeeling red glass that concealed the other mechs faceplates, it was the first time Bumblebee ever fully considered that, for all the time he had known Blitzwing, he had never seen his face. 

“Uh..” The yellow mech coughed into his servo, snapped out of the moment, “I forgot how long this story actually was...um, we should probably get going.”

“Huh? Oh, yes.” 

The beige mech snapped out of whatever disgusting trance this was and quickly stood up, turning heel for the exit as fast as he could while sidestepping piles of datapads. As they left the palace library, Bumblebee hummed to himself, tapping his chin in thought.

“Hey, Blitzbrain?” He asked after a time, “Were we supposed to be doing something in there?”

The aforementioned mech simply shrugged at the suggestion. “Not that I’m aware of, Bumblebot.”

  
  


*************

  
  


This was bad.

Incredibly bad.

Despite being known as an impulse driven mech in and out of the battlefield, Blitzwing was very foreign to the topic of emotions that weren’t already evident in his three spinning faces. That fateful cycle spent playing with Bumblebee in what they later found out was called ‘snow’, he felt something intoxicating tug at his spark, just holding the little prince near him as they watched the snow fall together. Blitzwing being Blitzwing immediately recognized that it was an emotion, and not one he had experienced before, leading him to an obvious conclusion:

The earth snow was in fact deadly poisonous and he was going to die in a matter of breems. 

After subtly checking on Bumblebee the walk back and determining he was fine (when he had started caring about  _ that _ was a whole other can of terraslugs) the beige mech made a frantic retreat to his quarters, where he spent a good portion of the lunar cycle trying to purge his tanks of any possible toxins, despite his HUD saying that, while he was cold as an aft, he was fine, so please stop trying to puke up energon.

When he had finally come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t deathly ill, it only partially relieved him. On one hand, not contracting some nightmare disease meant that he was alive, which is always a plus, and that he could continue his mission of infiltrating the Autobots, finding out where the allspark fragments was hidden in these walls, and eventually execute the prince. But on the other hand, it meant that whatever was, and is happening to him wasn’t something unnatural, it was coming from within. 

An initial virus scan told him nothing, which further served to tick him off. He spent the rest of the night huffing and puffing on his berth, not getting much recharge at all. 

Tonight he was again conflicted with the same ‘feelings’.

Blitzwing looked down at his servos with disdain. Why couldn’t he just do something straightforward, for once? Shockwave was always better at being undercover, but he was currently in the ASD, and the only other mech megatron trusted as much as him was Lugnut, who would no doubt give away his position five breems in to rant about his ‘great and glorious leader’. So that just left the officially recognized decepticon wackjob as the only other mech trusted enough for the position. Lucky him.

So that left Blitzwing here, in the heart of enemy territory, caught up in replaying his memory banks from earlier that afternoon, where Bumblebee had been so earnestly overjoyed in the simple act of reading a data pad. The beige mech knew he had no one to blame but himself, so he blamed someone else.

Stupid fragging Shockwave. This was all his fault. Him and his stupid one optic.

Blitzwing was pissed, really pissed. Pissed at Bumblebee, mostly, for making him feel so dizzy and nauseous and happy and sick. And at Shockwave. For being stupid. Usually when he was miffed at something he’d punch it and then he’d feel better. But Shockwave was all the way back on Cybertron, and the thought of hurting Bumblebee hurt him almost as much. He knew, though, at some point he would be ordered to, and he knew he couldn’t say no. Which made him more pissed. So pissed, in fact, that he went to recharge pissed, woke up pissed, and proceeded to spend the rest of the day incredibly pissed.

Stupid Shockwave.

  
  


*************

  
  


Bumblebee leaned against the wall, optic lids fluttering as he tried desperately not to nod off.

In the center of the small, domed room lay a fourth of the allspark, encased and atop a pedestal. A small, blue glow emanated from the enclosed box, faintly illuminating the room in small slivers of cerulean. To make up for the guilt that gnawed at his processor like an adolescent scraplet, Bumblebee had decided to dedicate the rest of the night to make sure his piece of the allspark was maintained and well guarded, as was his duty. He paid for it in breems of lost sleep. 

His chronometer, now adjusted to one of the planets’ many time zones, told him it was half past three am. His azure optics flicked up to the box, and there it sat. Still as unmoving and boring as ever. 

He missed Blitzwing.

Which was an odd thing to think, considering he had seen the beige mech only breems before. Bumblebee decided to blame it on lack of sleep. 

Now on the topic of his best friend, Bee’s processor drifted to Blitzwing, and what the beige mech would likely do if he were here with him. Probably try to eat the allspark. Now that would be funny. 

He thought back to the events earlier that day, that quiet moment in the library, and how disconnected he felt from the knight when he had met him with full earnestness and only received an emotionless red wall in return. It also served as a reminder that, while Bumblebee had been content to let Blitzwing sit back in silence while he practically poured his spark out, the prince had next to nothing on Blitzwing. Barely anything on what he liked, disliked, spent his time doing, or any of his ambitions; and trying to pry about his past had wielded less than desirable results.

Bumblebee was determined to change that. 

Yes, he decided, in his foggy, sleep deprived mind, that officially starting tomorrow it wouldn’t be about him. Bee had never prided himself on being patient, but he knew that getting someone like Blitzwing to let down their walls voluntarily wasn’t an overnight project. The yellow mech decided that, just this once, he would be more than willing to wait. 

‘ _ You asked for it, Blitzbrain. _ ’ Bumblebee smirked to himself, slowly drifting off into recharge, ‘ _ I’m gonna tear down each stupid wall you put up if I have to take ‘em apart brick by brick. Starting with that stupid helmet of yours _ .’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...awww man


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evidence case #89 why robots need therapists (no not you rung you don’t count)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the really overwhelming response everyone!!! This is my first fic, and I really didn’t expect it to get as much attention as it has been (not to sound like a broken record lol)

Bumblebee launched his half baked plan into action from the minute he reawakened from stasis. 

When his body finally decided it was hungrier than it was tired, it snapped itself out of recharge, chronometer reading eleven pm. Bee remembered who what how why and where he was and immediately bolted up, which rewarded him with thousands of little cramps stinging throughout his chassis like ants. Ignoring his poor posture he rushed out, chugged some energon, almost choked, and made a direct beeline (hahA) to the armory. 

Once there, Bumblebee scoured for the perfect, Bee sized sword. He eventually found such a blade in a canary colored smallsword, glowing faintly in the already bright room. The determined yellow mech spent the rest of the day practicing alone, jabbing the air around him until he was confident enough in his skills. While he worked his servos sore, Bumblebee’s processor was also running rampant, internally going over everything that went wrong in the first fight. 

Blitzwing was fast, but his size would impair him in a space as small as the cave. Bee hadn’t properly used his short stature to move around, and had instead allowed himself to be trapped by his environment. Wow. That was the most coherent train of thought he had in two cycles. Good job, Bumblebee.

He stayed in the armory well after sunset, finally returning to his quarters when his tanks churned with hunger. As he sipped on a cube of energon, the prince could not help but notice with a pang of longing that he hadn’t seen or heard from Blitzwing all day. Quickly, he pulled up their comm. line and rapid fired a good night text. Successfully staving off his moment of yearning, Bumblebee relaxed with a stretch of his arms and fell back, hitting the berth and immediately slipping into stasis.

He was awoken a moment later by a message from his comms. Blitzwing had sent him a one word ‘goodnight’ just to show he wasn’t dead. He even capitalized it and added a period, what a nerd. A small smile crept upon Bumblebee’s lips as he offlined his optics, easing into recharge once again.

No way was he gonna let this plan fail.

*************

  
  


Blitzwing snarled as he kicked another mound of snow aside.

After cycle two of his sulk-a-thon, the beige mech was just about ready to implode from stress. On an impulse, he traced his way back to the outside world and took off for a quick flight to stretch his wings, the relief that came with being in the sky took an imminent effect on his chassis. By the time he touched down to the crisp snow, his spark was lighter than it had been in decacycles. Happily, he summed up that the reason for all his fuss had simply been that he was stressed from being inside so long, nothing more. 

Blitzwing had been content, for once, and was beginning to walk back to the tunnels when it started snowing. All at once he was hit with a wave of memories, how he and Bumblebee had spent the cycle playing in the forest, how bright the yellow mech’s smile became when he managed to land a good hit on Blitzwing, and exactly how close Bumblebee clung to him when it became too cold for the little prince-

Blitzwing let out a thunderous roar and fell to the ground on his knees. Gripping his helm, the beige mech attempted to remain calm and rationalize everything running through his processor. Okay, feeling, what was he feeling? C’mon, he knew this- dizzy, nauseous, and happy. Yeah, he knew what happy was, he would get little glimpses of it in his fits of hysteria. Them serotonin bitches. It’s all their fault.

With soft ex vent, Blitzwing rolled onto his back and kicked up a pile of snow; it did little to relieve the guilt already settling in the pit of his tanks. He didn’t have the slightest clue to whatever... _ this _ was, but the beige mech had a sinking feeling that it would be frowned upon if he reported it in to Shockwave, and would most definitely jeopardize his place in the Decepticon ranks. Blitzwing had worked hard to get to where he currently sat as a lieutenant, resting his goals on one simple motto:

When you hold power, you are safe. And when you’re safe, you can’t be hurt. 

At least, not usually.

Blitzwing pressed his servo against a now invisible medical scar, suppressing a shudder that had nothing to do with the cold. The least she could have done was use anasthetic. Jerk.

He was snapped out of his tumultuous train of thought by a ping from his comm. systems. Bumblebee saying goodnight. Blitzwing blinked a little, and lifted his helm up to the sky. Sure enough, he was met with the face of the moon, and exhaustion started seeping into his joints when he realized just how late it was. Then he looked back at Bee’s message.

All at once, that stubborn happiness rose up again like a bubbling mixture from the bottom of his tanks, and suddenly Blitzwing wasn’t feeling like contemplating his doomed future at all; his lips even began to twitch at the corners. Must be a siezure.

A curt goodnight was sent back in response, and Blitzwing arose from the site of his temper tantrum, ready to take on a new day; preferably accompanied by several decacycles of recharge first. Being huffy all the time sure was tiring, how did Starscream do it?

The mech knew that eventually, he’d have to confront why he felt those things for Bumblebee and what they meant, but for now he was content, clear headed for once. He kept an upbeat pace as he marched back to the tunnel entrance. Suddenly, a loose thought wove itself into frame. Blitzwing stalled just long enough to turn back to the night sky, and the sprinkling of stars thrown onto the atmosphere as an afterthought. 

It was oddly beautiful. He should Bumblebee out again to see it sometime.

Unknown to himself, Blitzwing smiled.

  
  
  


*************

  
  
  


_ Detailed below for his lordship’s viewing are several excerpts of comm. logs between acting agent Lieutenant Blitzwing and his target, Allspark prince Bumblebee. It is to my belief the Lieutenant may have cut out certain transcripts against my wishes, but as I do not have direct access to his processor from here, your lordship and I shall simply have to give him the benefit of the doubt.  _   
  


_ ——— August 14, 20XX ——— _

_ _B-4W-9_ has successfully linked _B-127_ to a private text comm. link.  _

_ _B-4W-9_ has changed their name to Blitzwing. _

_ Blitzwing: _

_ Thot u might wanna talk XP _

_ _B-127_: _

_ LMAOOO new HUD who dis _

_ Blitzwing: _

_ It’s me. Blitzwing. I thought you would know because of the name. _

_ _B-127_: _

_ No it’s a joke Bc like- oh whatever _

_ _B-127_ has changed their name to Bumbleb33. _

_ ——— September 15, 20XX ——— _

_ Blitzwing: _

_ Why do you have 3’s in your name _

_ Bumbleb33: _

_ You see, Blitzbrain, there’s a little thing called ‘homestuck’ and _

_ [DATA EXPUNGED] _

_ ——— September 19, 20XX ——— _

_ Blitzwing: _

_ Wow _

_ That was the worst thing I’ve ever read. _

_ Thank you. _

_ Bumbleb33: _

_ _ You’re welcome! _ _

_ _[DATA EXPUNGED]_ _

_ ———October 1, 20XX ——— _

__

_ Blitzwing: _

_ Basement. Half a breem. _

_ DON’T BE LATE _

_ Try not to hit your helm going down all those stairs!!! _

_——— October 5, 20XX ———_

_Blitzwing:_

_weer calling that place the hive rite?_

_Bumbleb33:_

_the hive?_

_Blitzwing:_

_get it Bc ur a bee nd beees live in hieves_

_Bumbleb33:_

_OHHHHH lol_

_yea sure y not_

_[DATA EXPUNGED]_

_——— October 28, 20XX ———_

_Blitzwing has changed their name to BlitZZZ._

_Bumbleb33:_

_oh we changing names now?_

_Bumbleb33 has changed their name to BB Boye._

_ [DATA EXPUNGED] _

_ ——— December 13, 20XX ——— _

_ BlitZZZ: _

_ So there I was, one pede in the airlock, Astrotrain’s having a seizure, and there’s still half a pie left. _

_ [DATA EXPUNGED] _

_ ———December 17, 20XX ——— _

__

_ BB Boye: _

_ UGGHHH IM BORRREEEDD _

_ BlitZZZ: _

_ Hello to you, too. _

_ BB Boye: _

_ Meet me in the library, I need help looking for some dumb book _

_ Optimus forgot. _

__   
  


_ ——— December 19, 20XX ——— _

__

_ BB Boye: _

_ Goodnight gamers _

_ BlitZZZ: _

_ Goodnight. _

__

_ ——— December 20, 20XX ——— _

__

_ BB Boye: _

_ Hey loser _

_ BlitZZZ: _

_ Loser _

_ BB Boye:  _

_ Meet me @ the cave tmrrw @ 12 if you’re not a loser >:pp _

_ Oh and bring ur sword _

_ BlitZZZ: _

_ Ooo is it H I V E T I E M ??? _

_ BB Boye: _

_ ITS HIVE TIME, BABEY _

_ BlitZZZ: _

_ AWWWW Y EA. . _

_ I’ll be there. _

_ BB Boye: _

_ Sick. See ya then loser. _

_ BlitZZZ:  _

_ Bye loser. _

_ BB Boye:  _

_ Bye _

__

_ The following records have been signed off by acting intelligence commander Shockwave _

**Author's Note:**

> Le toombler: femmevee  
> (Yell in my inbox if you want me to write any blitzbee Drabble stuff)


End file.
